Friday, September 16, 2005

New Orleans poverty fight to be a success. But Houston?

Last night in his speech, President Bush made defeating the area's poverty part of the recovery's goal. He shouldn't have too much trouble scoring a victory on that one:
Fewer than half of all New Orleans evacuees living in emergency shelters here said they will move back home, while two-thirds of those who want to relocate planned to settle permanently in the Houston area, according to a survey by The Washington Post, the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation and the Harvard School of Public Health.
With land speculation already heating up in New Orleans, it is looking like New Orleans will be a much different city when rebuilt. With the poor relocating to new locales, it'll be richer. If the President is going to try to defeat the poverty of Katrina victims, he had better look towards Houston to do it, because that city and the state of Texas are going to have a host of new social issues to wrestle with.

Update
Business Week has some interesting ideas on revitalizing New Orleans.

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